Truth or Dare

Chapter 6: The Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but…

The chapter elaborates on the various notions of truth, especially in regards to the practice of journalism and the wider impact the truth in journalism can have on a society.
Exactly how important is truth in journalism. Obviously it is a crucial element in preventing an honest readership but I think in following on with the theme of public interest sometimes the truth can be damaging to an audience. Take for instance this article: http://thegreenman.net.au/mt/archives/000728.html which explains how the newspapers deleted or minimised the effects of a severed bloody limb after bomb attacks in spain. If the paper were to show the "true" photo it could have a lasting or damaging effect on the publications audience which initially is not in the publics intrest. In saying this though, I dont think it is ever easy to give the true representation of a specific event of issue. Journalists need to take it into their own account on whether the truth is best for the situation. Im not saying that they should lie, but merely minimize the effects if it its not valued but society.

I also think universal truth is a task on its own. Firstly, Plato, truths for all people everywhere and for all time, is a nice thought and would be a wonderful achievement, but in our diverse universe I dont think we can make something like that work efficiently. I think journalists should tell the story in the best, objective way, detailing the exact details but without damaging consequences. Censorship should come into play here. Tell the truth about the incedent but dont allow images of indecent acts to corrupt our sponge like brains or younger more innocent counterparts emotive and personlised feelings.

Chapter 7: The importance of enquiry

The text examines and describes to us the three types of enquiry. All three of these are said to be connected to the other with the journalist being caught unable to move on to another level without adequate enquiry at level one. These 3 steps are described as:

1. Reactive reporting: observation, and an account of what happened which is most often brief

2. Analytic reporting: The answers, and the who what when?

3. Reflective reporting: The deeper seated social trends, approached in a way which may have set the scene.

All good journalism requires a continual and ongoing enquiry. Take a look at my blog on Kisschasy. It goes on to explain my enquiry and ongoing research into the band. I used this three step process for a change and to my own disbelief, actually found it to be useful. Journalists need to become envolved within the story so they can potray the best outcome to the society they are representing. Enquiry is the only way this can become successful without the apparition of the story becoming confused. A journalist must as stated above discover the truths of the story and justify them through their own body of special knowledge. Ivestigation is the key here and nothing can appose this as its a tradition and efficient way of researching news stories. All the commercialisation and political governing couldnt change it, even if they wanted to.

Chapters 4 and 5: Hard Yakka versus the Business

Chapter 4 mainly deals with the capitalist structure that exists within todays news organisations. The media seems to look very different to its past conterparts. According to Bob Franklin we are an ear where the news focus's heavily on the
1. Shifting balance to entertainment
2. Disappearance of foreign and political news in some media
3. Trend towards infotainment.

He belives that most of this is due to the "softer or lighter" stories that media companies are covering as apposed to the more traditional harder breaking news storys. It is not so much in the publics intrest anymore but what the public "would" be interested in. He calls this "newszak" and belives we have all moved into the infotainment era. Everything is based on entertaining the public.

Yes I do agree with what Franklin is saying, as most news coverages these days heavily rely on ratings and survey results to keep the stations or papers runnning and most believe that entertaining the audience is the best way at keeping this at bay. But I d feel that if we still maintain the traditional role of producing a news story to an audience and giving accurate and valuable news issues audiences will stay attached because most of us don't know whether or not to belive what we are hearing anymore anyways. I think if I ever put myself infront of the Today Tonight television timeslot I would have to get up and leave.

I think it was on the Hamish and Andy show on the Austereo drive show where they interviewed Anna Coren of the Today tonight (TT) show and had a quiz to guess which story they covered or which one was made up. I remember one of the questions being: did TT cover a story where a dog swam from Tasmania to Melbourne in one day and she actually said yes they covered it when they really didnt. After she got it wrong, she admitted in an embrarressed cover up that the program is based on entertaining and covering ludicrious news stories in order to keep the public interested. But really do we want to see another story where neighbours are at war with each other.

This leads me on to chapter 5.

Basically if you have read the chapter you will see how it bridges the gap between the commercial, economic and political hold on journalism to date. After reading the previous chapter I agree with most this chapter has to say. News agencies are based on commercial success. If they wern't then what good would they be in the commercial world we live in. There only following suit tot he other norms that surround us..

In my attempt at trying to become a journalist of some sort, I have been lucky enough to already work in an industry where gaining contacts is easier than if I were on my own. I was very fortunate to have interviewed Kisschasy last night when they played a special RSVP show at the Metro in George Street Sydney.
I usually conduct my interviews with little or no preparation at all. Research on the artists is usually as far as I will go. Im like one of the jocks that doesnt like to wash their undies or jock strap before a big match? strage yeah..But, Im the kind of person that works better on the spur of the moment and improvises my behind off unitl their is some kind of potenital journalistic gold produced.

This time, after all Christina's words of wisdom and after listening to various presentations, I decided to conduct my interview similar to the one, conducted in class. I prepared. shock...I had questions lined up, back up questions, follow up questions and a broader knowledge than, "whats the craziest thing a fan has ever done for you?" I had my pen, paper and kinda tried to imagine myself as one of those amazing 1960-70'sRolling Stones journalists that basically criticised every single Led Zeppelin Album that was ever released, even though they were all amazing pieces of work haha (my subjectivity). My goal was to be the enemy....and a real intimidating one i'm sure. ha

I cancelled out all subjectivity or personal feelings towards the band. I was asking questions from an audience and public perspective not from my own. And I tired to target the question and direct them from a particular niche market I had created. So basically my audience demographic that I was aiming for was both male and female aged 20-30. And it was categorized towards more of a rock magazine. Ranging questions for both male and female is harder than you think, when it comes to rock music.

So overall, I took a little knowledge from each weeks readings, mixed them up and interviewed a bunch of really cool guys, who were a great interview. I can go as far as saying I prepared well and thats why it turned out so good, but they had great personalitites and were open to all of my questions. So cheers to all!!

Interview with James Bracey

James Bracey is a young, smart and talented journalist. Some would think at the age of 22 and being a Sports journalist on Sky News one would have no idea about the true meaning of journalism in society. Interestingly enough, James provided myself and the group with some detailed information on what he belives a good journalist is, through his own expereinces and through some he has witnessed at Sky News in particular. A student of the University of Newcastle and a Central Coast local, James has had an amazing break inot the journalism world. I will be putting up some, voice clips of the interview as soon as Ben a member of Team Bracey recovers from his illness. Ben may the force be with you!

Blogs Missing in Action: anyone seen them?

All my blogs have been deleted...Yes, I really am not made for this blogging experience... But stay tuned I shall re-write and critique some more....

Citizen journalism

For me citizen journalism is not technically true journalism. Well, its rather a personal perception not a socially validated comment. I'm mean, yes, everyone is allowed to freedom of speech and opionion but does that officially mean anyone can promote their feelings and have it classified as being valid in the "public spere". Or even for it to potentially have an effect on society. I just think citizen journalism allows for two much opinion. Im not saying subjectivity and opionion arne bad but most of the Blogs on citizen journalist websites I have come across don't socially construct an image on what they are trying to say. Things like censorship and defamation cannot be monitored as efficiently as everyday journalism. And once it does become a problem one can simply state they are a blogger not journalist, even though they previously got their nickers in a twist when someone said they wernt a journalist. Ironic!

A return to practice: reclaiming journalism as public conversation

What is the role of journalism in society? Alot of this reading brought up the often contradictory issues surrounding exactly what a journalists role is and what purpose it serves in our culture. The chapter moves into explaining the origanal role journalism played in society. Basically journalism was a " cultural practice" (Tapsall and Varley:40:2001) which survived primarily in the "public sphere" and it's main function was to represent and communicate within society. So what's modern journalism's role and has it differed from what it orginally stood for?
In my eyes, journalism still communicates with its public. It somewhat even allows us as a public sphere to communicate back with new additions to the would-be-journalist:citizen journalism and so on.

It states in the chapter that modern journalism is "independent". This branching from the theory that media institutions were seen as "the fourth estate" (Tapsall and Varley:41:2001) and were independent of the other three estates of the judiciary, executive goevernments and parliament. But it is often argued that the public is left out of this conception, and the media stands primarily in the role as adversary.

I do agree with Gramsci, who noted that " the media take their place alongside other cultural institutions which influence public opinion. The media and journalism are part of thr array of institutions that form culture" (Gramsci:380-1:88). I also think that his concept of "integral journalism" is valid today because most of the news we indulge in allows us to think beyond the basic common sense of readership. Most of us take on an article and pursue it that tiny bit further to give it more substance than whats simplified on paper. Citizen and Public journalism support this notion but can sometimes go beyond the point of being critical.